Ṣād 38:55-58

Hādhā, wa inna li'l-ṭāghīna la-sharra maʾāb · Jahannama yaṣlawnahā fa-biʾsa'l-mihād · Hādhā fa'l-yadhūqūhu ḥamīmun wa ghassāq · Wa ākharu min shaklihī azwāj

"This. And for the transgressors there is surely an evil place of return: Hell. They enter it; how evil a bed it is! Here it is — let them taste it: boiling water and pus. And others of its kind, in pairs."

The verse begins with a single word, and that word closes the preceding section: hādhā — "this".

The grammarians count this a sign of transition: a short pause as the telling passes from one side to the other.

I record this as my own reading: the sūra neither joins the two tableaux nor compares them. It simply passes from one to the other — and marks the passage with a single word.

Root ط-غ-ي: to exceed a bound, to overflow. And the concrete sense of the root was treated in al-ʿAlaq and al-Fajr: ṭughyān — water's overflowing its vessel, going past the limit.

What was recorded in the discussion of al-Fajr was this, and it connects here: "the furthest point of ṭughyān is to put oneself in the position of a lord."

And that the word set against the God-fearing is ṭāghīn must be recorded:

And in the twenty-eighth verse the opposition took the form muttaqī / fujjār. Here it is muttaqī / ṭāghī. All three words convey a relation to a limit: one takes cover, one splits through (ف-ج-ر), one overflows (ط-غ-ي).

I record this as an observation, and its ground is the lexicographers' descriptions of the three roots.

It is the exact opposite of the forty-ninth verse:

The same pattern, one word different. Ḥusn → sharr. This is a symmetry that can be verified from the text.

And the word maʾāb occurs here for the fourth and last time. It was tabulated above: David (25), Solomon (40), the God-fearing (49), the transgressors (55).

I record this as my own reading: maʾāb is "the place one returns and arrives at", and the root is أ-و-ب — the prophets of the sūra were named awwāb (those who return often). The sūra says, that is, that everyone returns somewhere; what differs is the place returned to.

مِهَاد — root م-ه-د: to level and spread a thing out, to make up a bed. Mahd — a cradle. This word was treated in al-Nabaʾ at 78/6 (a-lam najʿali'l-arḍa mihādā) — there the earth was named a "bed".

And its use here is a reversal:

The same word, in two opposite contexts. I record this as an observation.

And biʾsa — the verb of blame, the opposite of niʿma. It was tabulated above: in the sūra two niʿma (30, 44), two biʾsa (56, 60).

حَمِيم — root ح-م-م: to grow hot, to burn. Ḥamīm — boiling water. It was treated in al-Nabaʾ, al-Wāqiʿa and al-Dukhān.

غَسَّاق — root غ-س-ق. It was treated in detail in al-Nabaʾ at 78/25, and the two wings of the root were given in al-Falaq. I rely on that and do not repeat it here.

The summary of the findings in the discussion of al-Nabaʾ:

"The root غ-س-ق has two wings of meaning — dense darkness and a thick, heavy, flowing thing — and the place where the two meet is a flowing, seeping, spreading thickness… The renderings of the word in the commentaries: pus, the fluid that runs from the wounds of the people of the Fire, a very cold and putrid drink… The drink, that is, carries darkness inside its own name."

And ghassāq is on the فَعَّال pattern — intensive.

A note on a variant reading was entered in the discussion of al-Nabaʾ as well: it is transmitted that the word is also read without the doubling, as غَسَاق; the difference of sense is not great. The same note holds here.

What is particular to Ṣād is the difference of construction between the two sūras:

The kind of that exception was discussed in the treatment of al-Nabaʾ (whether muttaṣil or munqaṭiʿ) and two views were given there with no preference imposed. In Ṣād there is no pattern of exception; in its place there is an imperative.

And the verb is the same: yadhūqū — to taste. In the eighth verse it was said bal lammā yadhūqū ʿadhāb ("they have not yet tasted the punishment").

This is a verbal link that can be verified, and I record it as my own reading: what is called "they have not yet tasted" at the beginning of the sūra is given to be tasted in the fifty-seventh verse. The expectation contained in the lammā of the eighth verse is met here.

شَكْل — root ش-ك-ل: to resemble; the form or kind of a thing. Mushkil — that which cannot be told apart because things resemble one another (and from there: hard, confused).

أَزْوَاج — its singular zawj: a pair, a mate; and a kind, a sort.

The sentence makes no enumeration: it says "there are others of its kind" and gives no detail.

A variant reading is transmitted: wa ākharu (singular) or wa ukharu (plural). The difference of sense is not great; because I cannot state with certainty which imam held which preference, I give no names.

I record this as my own reading: the sentence has been deliberately left open. Two things were counted, and the third was passed over by saying "and the like of them." This accords with the general manner of the sūra: in the description of the Garden in the fifty-first verse too it said fākihatin kathīra (abundant fruit), and made no count.